Program Information
Initial Orthovoltage Beam Profile Analysis of a Small Brass MLC
B Loughery*, M Snyder , Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Presentations
SU-E-T-501 (Sunday, July 12, 2015) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose: To create brass leaves for an orthovoltage MLC and take initial beam profile measurements.
Methods: The low-energy MLC was designed in previous work. Brass was chosen for its self-lubrication and low cost. Stock brass rectangles (30cm x 1.0cm x 0.5cm) were ordered with pre-cut gear rack along the topmost long edges. Leaf designs were translated into G-code, then cut with a Tormach CNC-1100 mill. Intense bowing was observed in the beam direction, which required straightening via an in-house jig. Straightened leaves were placed into MLC assembly and mounted to a 320 kVp orthovoltage tube. EDR2 film was irradiated in four situations: MLC open so one edge was isocentric, and MLC open more than isocentric, completely closed MLC, and an open field shot with the MLC removed. The first two scans tested penumbra for our rectangular edges due to unfocused design. The final two scans tested transmission and interleaf leakage. All four experiments were set to 120 kVp and 10 mA for two minutes.
Results: Transmission and interleaf leakage were found to be zero. Interleaf leakage is faintly visible on film, but undetected by our film scanner despite high spatial resolution. Penumbra at isocenter was found to be 0.72mm, which matched the penumbras of true field edges. Penumbra off-isocenter was 1.1mm. Mechanically, leaves are moving smoothly once straightened.
Conclusion: Beam profiles through our brass MLC are acceptable. Leaves attenuate and move as designed. Looking forward, we intend to animate our MLC to deliver more complicated treatment plans.
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